PLAID Cymru Treasury spokesman Jonathan Edwards claims Labour would have cut the Assembly Government’s capital budget by more than the Tory-led administration that replaced it.

PLAID Cymru Treasury spokesman Jonathan Edwards claims Labour would have cut the Assembly Government’s capital budget by more than the Tory-led administration that replaced it.

Mr Edwards made the claim in a briefing paper sent to the Western Mail in which he accused Labour of having no idea how to address Wales’ economic challenges.

The MP for Carmarthen East and Dinefwr claimed Treasury figures published at the time of Alistair Darling’s 2009 Budget indicated an intention to cut the Welsh capital grant by 45% over three years, while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were cutting the same grant by 41% over four years.

Mr Edwards said: “For some bizarre reason, the Labour Party has decided to make the economy the battleground for the forthcoming National Assembly election.

“Considering their toxic legacy and their lack of any ideas about how to meet the challenges of the future, it seems a strange political strategy.

“The Labour years also witnessed huge wealth polarisation at both an individual and regional level, with the rich getting richer and the poor poorer.”

Mr Edwards said it was essential to find new ways of tackling Wales’ economic difficulties.

“We in Plaid have been working on an alternative funding stream via the creation of a not for profit distribution body with the ability to raise finance,” he said.

“If Labour disagrees with this model they need to come up with an alternative.”

A spokesman for Welsh Labour said he did not wish to respond to Mr Edwards’ “rant”.

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